TV station owners may get a windfall from selling broadcast airwaves

Your favorite local TV station may be worth a lot more if it goes off the air.

The owners of broadcast TV outlets across the country learned Friday how much the Federal Communications Commission could offer for the portion of radio frequency spectrum they use to transmit broadcast signals. The federal government, which licenses the spectrum to broadcasters, is buying it from the stations so that it can be auctioned to mobile carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.

The FCC’s prices point to a potential windfall for TV station owners, even small independent broadcasters and nonprofits.

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KVCR, a PBS member station licensed to the San Bernardino Community College District, was given a value of $628.6 million. The figure is the highest for any station in the Los Angeles market, including NBCUniversal’s KNBC, which was priced at $605.9 million.

WCBS, the CBS Corp. station in New York, was assigned an opening price of $900 million, the most of any station. But even a small independent station in the market — WMBC in Newtown, N.J. — was priced at $805 million.

The demand for spectrum and the opening prices set by the FCC are based on location. Stations along the northeast corridor and the West Coast, where mobile carriers need spectrum the most, have the highest prices.

Station owners that sell their spectrum can continue broadcasting if they take a lower bid and are willing to be reassigned to another frequency where a signal may not have the same power or reach. Owners with multiple outlets — known as duopolies — who choose to sell could move the programming of the sold station to a secondary digital channel so that it can still be available to viewers.

KVCR, CBS and NBCUniversal all declined comment on the auction prices. But CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves has said in the past that his company would consider selling spectrum in markets where it owns more than one TV station.

Several TV executives and a consultant who advises broadcast companies, all of whom were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said the eye-popping prices are likely to be lower when the spectrum is actually sold.

The bids are projections subject to fluctuation based on how many TV station owners choose to sell. “The spectrum could have great value,” the consultant said. “If everyone chooses to participate, it has less value.”

Station owners have until Dec. 18 to decide if they want to participate in next year’s auction.

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